MR2 Update: PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT

Pictures and stuff.

The painful "no mi gusta" moment of putting the car back up on jacks.



***MONTAGE OF PSEUDO SWEARING AND FINDING EVERY BOLT HOLDING THE TRANSMISSION ON***




The transmission out.


Ah! There you are.


Let's see what we got here.


You're a bad clutch and you should feel bad.


The cavalry! A 6 puck ACT unsprung clutch kit and a Fidanza fly wheel. What a difference in weight the Fidanza is. The stock flywheel feels like it ways a veritable ton. I was grunting to get it out from under the car. The Fidanza, on the other hand, has all the weight of puppy dreams and wishes- maybe less (about 3-4lbs. ymmv). The difference is night and day.


Here it is mounted.


And now with the shiny clutch. Shame I hopefully won't see it again.

The transmission is almost on right now actually. Just a few more bolts and I should be set, of course if you've done this before (as I haven't) you might have noticed that Toyota uses a different bolt every single time. So it's been fun.

Aliens Vs. Pooh

This pretty much sums it up.

I thought this was entertaining.

Another Twilight

Wilson Population +1

I'll be a dad.

We just confirmed it from the doctor. I'm a bit stricken for words.

MR2 Update: VVVvvvvvoommmm Psht

Vindication came in the form of surprise. True enough, yesterday I went to the car and it started without a moments hesitation. So after I warmed it up, started it and stopped it a couple times, and tested out the car around the block, I went to correct something a friend had confirmed for me.

The gas was bad, real bad.

Incrementally I placed load on the engine so to test and eliminate potential misfiring that I had discovered inopportunely on its last voyage. It pulled hard at every opportunity. The next stop was the open road of Covington Pike and the gas station down the street.
Now, I must impress that my opinion of the project car is that something is wrong. Something is always wrong and I must test to find it. Failure of some form, for now, is the modus operandi.

Pulling out to Covington Pike, I let down the accelerator.

It was kinda like that.

It works! It pulls hard. Turbo wining and throwing me quite surprisingly into the back of the seat, my neck strained to move forward. I was out of breath. I'm not sure if it was because of the acceleration or from mere unadulterated surprise that there wasn't anything particularly wrong. But it worked! This was my second outing in a SW20, in a car in the post 200hp range, or in a turbo car at all, and I must say that the brief 5 minute drive was awesome.

My enthusiasm tempered when I fueled up though with the pungent aroma of a burning clutch. That's the least of my worries (and a planned contingency).

The part is already in route.

Of course it flooded and died again that evening, feet from the garage and at such an incline to make pushing it with the tractor necessary. That, I must confess, is more concerning.

MR2 Update: Sisyphian Prophecies

I talk about the car a lot, mostly cause it is original content, otherwise its just kinda slow. I had mentioned to a colleague earlier that day that the car had become something of an allegory to the pains Sisyphus would have endured. Little did I know that little allegorical drop into Greek myth would prove to be something of a prophecy.

The parts I needed to continue the work came in. Specifically, some new NGK spark plugs and new OEM cables. The cable from the distributor was all kinds of hosed, both not fitting right and suffering from just being cheap. Replacing it gave me consistent spark to the car, but it still would not start.

I had fuel too. The exhaust reeked of it. (Yes, I sniffed the tail pipe).
So, disappointed by a non-start but cautiously optimistic that there was progress being made, I removed all the plugs. And upon examining them, it was discovered that the spark plugs were literally dripping in gasoline. That follows considering there hasn't been proper spark to the car for awhile.

I replaced them with the NGK spec plugs Toyota recommends. And after a few false starts, the car struggles to life. I am thrilled.

After idling the car for awhile and slowly becoming confident that things are worked out through careful examination, I pull the car out. The parking cable I thought I properly calibrated is only 20% there- but still manageable. It took a ominous 15 degree incline to make that apparent.

Disaster is afoot.

So confident at this point am I that I offer to take the intrepid co-pilot Krusty on for a car ride (he's actually really well trained for this sort of thing). But upon putting him in the car I recall an error I made in the last trip. I didn't really secure the rear supports. They still aren't 100% secure.
Not again.

So I head back in to do it proper and button it up completely.

"Why aren't we going?"

So I take the dog in. Finish that work up. Pull the car back out and accidentally flood the car letting off the clutch in reverse to hold her on the incline. "Ooops" I think to myself over that inglorious sputter. It's not serious... right?

I grab Chip, cause he's excited, or perhaps just neglected. And put him in the car and crank it over. No dice.

Again. No dice.

Again. No dice.

Please? No dice.

Chip licks me, happy to be on a car ride.

The light dying outside and getting furtive glances from the neighborhood that my paranoid mind is painting as all potential car thieves, I was faced with having to troubleshoot it fast. At this point, I can't even roll up the windows to the car.
It's just a flooded engine... right? I keep asking myself that, not familiar with how to fix it. It was getting spark... timing is dead on... and the exhaust smells like gas.

But no. With every crank the car rolls a precipitous fraction of an inch forward and into the street and further away from my light and tools.

Like poor Sisyphus, despite the initial success, the car had to be pushed up the faint incline that made the car feel so much heavier than what it was. In fact, the tractor had to be pulled out to push and pull it most of the way.